Details Revealed on Death of Kim Jong Un’s Brother in High-Profile Trial

Details Revealed on Death of Kim Jong Un’s Brother in High-Profile Trial
Kim Jong-Nam, the eldest son of previous North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, in Macau on June 4, 2010. JoongAng Sunday/AFP/Getty Images
Epoch Newsroom
Updated:

The half-brother of Kim Jong Un suffered organ failure after he was attacked with the deadly VX nerve agent at the Kuala Lumpur airport earlier this year.

Kim Jong Nam, the son of dead North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, died after VX was rubbed over his face, which then caused his brain and lungs to swell, a murder trial heard today. Mohamad Shah Mahmood, who carried out the post-mortem on Kim Jong Nam, made the assessment, MailOnline reported.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are accused of killing Kim, and they’ve pleaded not guilty to murder. If convicted, they face the death penalty by hanging.

Kim died about 20 minutes in agony after the VX was rubbed on his face.

The women’s lawyers blame North Korean agents for his death. Pyongyang has denied the allegations. South Korea also accused the reclusive, communist country’s leadership of ordering the hit on Kim.

This combo shows a file photo (L) taken on May 4, 2001 of a man believed to be Kim Jong-Nam, son of the late-North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, getting off a bus to board an All Nippon Airways plane at Narita airport near Tokyo (TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA,ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images)
This combo shows a file photo (L) taken on May 4, 2001 of a man believed to be Kim Jong-Nam, son of the late-North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, getting off a bus to board an All Nippon Airways plane at Narita airport near Tokyo TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA,ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images
“I saw him clutching his head and he was closing his eyes tightly and his face was very red and he was sweating profusely,” doctor Nik Mohd Azrul Ariff Raja Azlan told a Malaysian court Monday, CNN reported.

Malaysian officials claim that the two women were trained by North Korean agents to swab his face with the nerve agent. But their lawyers said they thought they were participating in a game show broadcast live on TV.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) in Pyongyang on Fe. 22, 2017. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) in Pyongyang on Fe. 22, 2017. STR/AFP/Getty Images

“I saw the patient having tonic-clonic seizure,” Nik Mohd Azrul added. “His eyes rolled upward and there was drooling of saliva. He was not responding to our call.”

“As he was a large patient, we needed many staff to carry him together to the procedure room ... A few of us carried him together and managed to take him inside the room but unable to lift him on the bed because of his size.”

Kim, 45, was then placed in an ambulance to Putrajaya Hospital, but died on the way there, it was reported.